The notion of success in capitalist society
between merit and impersonality at labor
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33228/scribes.2020.v1.11241Abstract
This essay aims to reflect on the notion of success considering the contradictions in
labor relations in capitalism. It is discussed how the notion of success changed in the last century
until it reached its conformation as it appears today, related to meritocracy, entrepreneurship and
neoliberalism. On the one hand, success is usually linked to the individual, giving it a personal character, on the other hand, working relationships are increasingly impersonal. Such antithesis
is the core for presenting the process of strangeness of work in this mode of production to
demonstrate how the notion of success hides human exploitation, which is both objective and
subjective. It is concluded that the notion of success, in this conjuncture, is restricted to the
capacity to supply the material and immaterial needs that can be acquired from human relations
based on capitalist accumulation, that is, an economic category that acts as an ideological
reinforcement.
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